Tuesday, November 9, 2010

NoirCon PostMortem

I'll have a lengthier post to come about my NoirCon experiences, but I wanted to make sure to post this quote from Don Siegel: Director I happened to have with me on the weekend. I think it speaks to many of the issues that were brought up, including the "noir brain," the explosion of noir after WWII, noir/evil and reality, as well as the book's author, Stuart Kaminsky. This quote comes from actor Neville Brand, possibly best known as Al Capone on the first TV version of The Untouchables, who worked with Siegel on RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11. He also happened to be, at the time of publishing (1974), the fourth most-decorated soldier in US history.

"Don is like Peckinpah. They both dig violence and are two of the least violent guys I've ever met. It takes that kind of guy to understand violence. The violent guy doesn't understand. A man who has killer instinct in him, who has killed a lot of people - I killed a lot of people in the war - doesn't understand. I've worked all my life to channel the violence in me, to keep me out of the penitentiaries, for God's sake. They pinned medals on me for it during the war and since then I've had to channel it. Acting is the perfect channel for me..."

2 comments:

Have you ever seen Thys Ockersen's doc on Don Siegel he did for Dutch Television? "Don Siegel: The Last of the Independents"? I got a copy from the director and showed it in Brooklyn earlier this year. Some great footage.